I sometimes get the comment, "Father, I love it when you share those kind of stories because it makes you seem more human". It can be easy for us to forget that priests, in addition to having a very sacred calling of serivce to God and the Church, are human beings with personal limitations that are not that much different from everyone else's.
One of the most important lessons that I have learned during my eleven years of priesthood is how important it is for a priest to acknowledge his own human limits by leading a balanced life so that he can be joy-filled, healthy and holy. Movies might make us think that priestly holiness comes from doing things like sleeping on the floor or taking cold showers, but my own experience is that these practices are not the heart of what it means to be a Christian disciple. In the context of being a pastor of two parishes and a half-time graduate student, it is important that we all know that I will try to remember the following:
Taking a day of rest every week is one of the Ten Commandments and failing to do so is a sin.
Barring a pastoral emergency, a priest should spend at least two hours daily in prayer outside of celebrating Mass.
A priest must make a week-long annual retreat and be present at diocesan functions like deanery meetings, the priest convocation, ordinations, the Chrism Mass and priest days.
Bishop Doherty has repeatedly expressed his desire that priests be part of a priestly support group that meets monthly.
Younger priests like myself do well to meet monthly with another priest for spiritual direction.
My experience of priesthood has been that it usually means working at least six days a week and sixty hours a week. I have found that taking time away from the parish to relax with family and other priests has been very important to ensure that I have the focus and energy necessary to serve parishioners with patience and love.